WEBVTT - The Tapes 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:14.960 Diversion podcasts. Hey, my name is Kobe Bryant, and I 0:00:15.040 --> 0:00:17.919 love to play basketball and has always been my dream, 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:20.560 my go to play in the National Basketball Association ever 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:23.560 since I was I was four or five years old, 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.440 and I've always loved the game. H I love the 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.800 smell of the love it hardwood, compute on the playground, 0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:36.159 switching the net. I just I just went with up 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.320 the game. I don't know where that came from, just 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:46.479 always been there. You probably know that voice. That was 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:50.720 Kobe Bryant, basketball superstar for the Los Angeles Lakers, five 0:00:50.760 --> 0:00:56.280 time NBA champion, eighteen time All Star, Academy Award winning filmmaker, 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:01.560 children's book author, husband, father, Sometimes a lightning rod for 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:07.160 controversy and conflict, always a competitor beyond compare, a global icon. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:13.800 When Kobe, his daughter, Gianna, and seven other people died 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:18.760 in a helicopter crash in January, Kobe was as famous 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:23.440 as recognizable as any athlete on the planet. Over his 0:01:23.480 --> 0:01:27.240 two decades with the Lakers, he scored thirty three thousand, 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:31.120 six hundred and forty three points. That's more than Michael 0:01:31.160 --> 0:01:35.280 Jordan's scored, more than wil Chamberlain scored way more than 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.800 Dr j or Shaquille O'Neil or Larry Bird scored. Kobe 0:01:39.800 --> 0:01:43.920 also won five championships in two Olympic gold medals. His 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:47.920 nickname was the Black Mamba because he was so deadly 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.560 when the game mattered most. And you know what's funny 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:54.760 about that nickname, Kobe gave it to himself, which kind 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:56.880 of tells you everything you need to know about it. 0:01:58.040 --> 0:01:59.800 We're just gonna be the same person that I've been 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:04.000 up to this point in high school basketball player with 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.000 a lot of confidence that went out there and played well. 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.040 I just wanted to win the basketball game, you know, 0:02:08.080 --> 0:02:09.800 And that's what I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be a 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:15.360 basketball player that just enjoys the player. But the tapes 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:18.600 you're hearing aren't from the later years of his Lakers career, 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:24.280 when Kobe was already a celebrity. There from just a 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:26.920 few years after he and his family moved back to 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:31.200 the United States. They've been living in Italy for eight years. 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:32.800 Some of the tapes I want to play for you 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:35.600 are from when Kobe was a senior at Lower Merion 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:39.480 High School near Philadelphia. Some are from the weeks just 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.760 after he graduated and some are from his first season 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:45.880 with the Lakers. All of them are from the time 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.800 of his life when he was still just seventeen or 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:52.160 eighteen years old, when he was just beginning his path 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:58.600 to glory. Always played basketball. My family moved to Italy. 0:02:59.120 --> 0:03:02.519 I was raised over there. I think Matroy very well 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:06.000 over there, fascinating anybody else here in American media, And 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:08.920 when I came back, I had to addapt the lifestyle 0:03:09.760 --> 0:03:11.959 became the basketball because it was totally different, more and 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.239 fast paid. Life was more upbeat playing a basketball for 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:27.480 it was more physical, had a baptis both frames. That 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.480 was the thing about Kobe. He practically grew up before 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:34.160 our eyes. We saw his greatest moments, like when he 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.160 scored eighty one points in one game against the Toronto 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.760 Raptors in two thousand six, or when he scored sixty 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:43.320 points in his final game for the Lakers against the 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.960 Utah Jazz ten years later, and we saw his worst moments, 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:52.280 his arrest for sexual assault and the resulting scandal that 0:03:52.360 --> 0:03:56.640 bled from two thousand three into two thousand four. At best, 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.040 for his most devoted fans, it remained yeah but in 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:04.360 fact about him for the rest of his life. At worst, 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:08.400 it was an alleged act so reprehensible that to some 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:16.760 people it turned him into a villain forever. No matter 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.919 what your perspective is on Kobe, though, you have to 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.120 admit that he was more than just famous. He was 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:26.520 a fascinating figure. And these tapes I'm going to play 0:04:26.560 --> 0:04:29.320 for you over the course of this series provide a 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:32.880 glimpse of Kobe that few people had while he was alive. 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.360 This is Kobe as he was, but more than that, 0:04:36.960 --> 0:04:39.960 this is Kobe as he was figuring out who he 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:51.120 would be. I'm Mike Sealski and from Diversion podcasts, this 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:59.200 is I am Kobe. I the right to create myself, 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:09.160 create yourself, stay nice and go on, create yourself. You 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.200 gotta learn from the great minds so we gain't sell them. 0:05:12.240 --> 0:05:21.400 That's getting time Episode one. The tapes step between the court, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:23.760 the topic that just put out your problems sides black 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:26.720 half a good time and you get home and try 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:30.040 to work things out, trying to see what the problem is. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.760 But I probably the ton of gone. Yeah. Let it 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.960 affect you as a first, the problem as you have 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.680 the making weak, make you short, and you have to 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:47.160 know where the channel. Little problems telling right, So where 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:51.120 did these tapes come from? Well, to answer that, let's 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.919 introduce you to another important character in the story. I 0:05:55.000 --> 0:06:01.960 mean he absolutely new. Yeah. I mean if your expectations 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:03.960 you're going to jump from HIG school NBA, and you 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:08.000 yourself know you're different and you're special, and I think 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.679 he knew that, and he knew his talents or amazing. 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:26.279 That's Jeremy treatment. You probably haven't heard of him, not 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.159 unless you've immersed yourself and all the details of Kobe's 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:32.400 life story or in the history and culture of Philadelphia 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:35.520 area high school basketball. Jeremy has been a mover and 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.760 shaker in that world for about a quarter century. These days, 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:42.840 he has a company that arranges, organizes, promotes, and televises 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:47.560 high school and college basketball tournaments. Lebron James, Kevin Durant, 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:50.240 Dwight Howard, all of them played in games in high 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.240 school that Jeremy set up. He founded a camp for 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.719 teenagers who want to become play by play voices, and 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:58.760 he gets some of the biggest names in the business 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:03.640 to speak to the kid. Adam Schefter, Tracy Wolfson, Charles Barkley. 0:07:03.760 --> 0:07:05.760 I'm gonna go with Scottie Barnes at a Florida State 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.160 in the figure process. In this draft, Scottie Barnes is 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.840 a six eight small authorities about He's absolutely a fletted 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.080 demon and its upside the strigger route. But for the 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.720 SBC radio show make sure you call us seven three 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:22.280 to four, Jeremy is high intensive Martin. He'll admit to 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:25.240 you he can come off a little bit neurotic at times. 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:27.680 That's how he's been able to build his career. And 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:31.200 that career began back in the fall of when he 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:34.240 was twenty six years old writing for the Philadelphia Inquiry 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:37.960 and he met a fourteen year old kid named Kobe Bryant. 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:45.880 Thank you, hey, we want to leave him in there 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.280 for section I'm to tell you let me put him in. 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.760 Christ Jeremy and I met up one afternoon in August 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.560 one at his brother's house on Long Beach hild in 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:57.679 New Jersey. Chucky, Jeremy's ten year old chocolate lab joined 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:01.600 us too. What you just heard is removing two large 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.840 zip lock bags full of micro cassette tapes, tapes that 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:08.640 I used to write a book about Kobe, tapes that 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.800 you'll hear throughout this series. Tapes that Jeremy made Jeremy 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.800 didn't just meet Kobe, he coached Kobe, and he became 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:20.320 a confident onto Kobe. They were close friends, so close 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:22.480 that the two of them roomed together during a trip 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.480 to South Carolina when the Lower Marion Aces went down 0:08:25.480 --> 0:08:28.840 there for a tournament. So close that when Kobe decided 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.240 he was skipping college and going straight to the NBA, 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:34.959 Jeremy was one of the first people he told. So 0:08:35.040 --> 0:08:37.800 close that during Kobe's senior year of high school and 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:40.800 his first season with the Lakers, he and Jeremy began 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:43.960 sitting down for long interviews and collaborating on a book. 0:08:44.559 --> 0:08:47.240 It was Jeremy who was the one asking Kobe questions 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.199 on all those tapes, and there's a line in there 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:54.360 and a little friend, Jeremy Japan was buying to write 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.960 a book on him. The book never got written, and 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.880 as the years passed, their relationship changed. In some ways, 0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:05.160 they grew apart. In some ways, you could argue Jeremy 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.240 wasn't really a part of Kobe's life anymore. They didn't 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:12.680 stay in close contact. Kobe had become a global superstar 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:14.960 and there were only so many people in his inner 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:20.920 circle Jeremy really wasn't in Kobe's orbit anymore. When they 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.480 did see each other and interact, there seemed a growing 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:27.400 distance between them. It was natural, really. Kobe was off 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.439 in l a growing older, moving on from high school 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:34.200 and Lower Marian winning NBA championships, becoming a star for 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.560 the Lakers, becoming more famous than just about anyone had 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:42.880 expected him to become, anyone except maybe Kobe himself. All 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.719 the while, Jeremy stayed in the Philadelphia area working in 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.760 the sports media industry, becoming a basketball promoter and entrepreneur. 0:09:50.559 --> 0:09:52.679 The two of them didn't see each other nearly as 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:59.200 much as they once did. They weren't nearly as close. Hey, okay, now, 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:04.000 how do you feel about a lot of time. But 0:10:04.080 --> 0:10:07.439 Jeremy's loyalty to Kobe and the Bryant family never wavered. 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:10.040 Whenever Kobe was in the news for one reason or 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:12.960 another and CNN wanted to talk to someone about him, 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:16.079 Jeremy was just a phone call away, happy to describe 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.959 who Kobe was as a kid, and to explain how 0:10:19.000 --> 0:10:22.160 that young Kobe was connected to this grown up Kobe. 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:26.120 And think about it, if you were Jeremy treating why 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.360 would you want that connection to Kobe to be severed. 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:31.760 You were at the ground floor for one hell of 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:37.040 a rocket ride. So we hand me He's uh. I 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:39.640 was like, you know, there was a time I really 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:41.800 was close to Kobe Bryant. This was the time, you know, 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:45.439 this is the thirty tapes, just me and him sitting 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:49.400 there talking and nobody else before. And you get into 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:51.800 the n B a while he was in high school, 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:54.439 actually when it was in the NBA first two years 0:10:54.440 --> 0:10:56.280 and this is just company I think a four or 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.840 five year period. Um, it was a special time, you know, 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.200 to be like a small part of history of like 0:11:02.280 --> 0:11:06.320 one of the most iconic people ever live in his 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:10.760 or her profession, in this case basketball, it's kind of 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:26.520 an amazing thing. Hey, this is Mike Selsky, host and 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.240 writer of I Am Kobe. This podcast project came out 0:11:30.280 --> 0:11:33.120 of my work on a related book called The Rise 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.880 Kobe Bryant and the Pursuit of Immortality. If you want 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:40.240 to explore other parts of Kobe's story, check out The Rise. 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.480 It's not just a book version of the podcast. I 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.400 dive deeper into some of the topics covered in this series, 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.840 and even some that we don't cover at all. Kobe's upbringing, 0:11:50.120 --> 0:11:53.800 his family, his identity, his effect on his friends and teammates, 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.120 his journey into the NBA, and his earliest days with 0:11:57.160 --> 0:12:00.800 the Lakers. The Rise Kobe Bryant, It and the Pursuit 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.360 of Immortality is out now. Just head over to the 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.960 Rise of Kobe book dot com and you can buy 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.679 it from any of your favorite retailers. That's the Rise 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:27.680 of Kobe Book dot com. Thanks. My name is Mike Sealsky. 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:31.240 I've covered sports in the Philadelphia area for more than 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.880 twenty years, the last eight as a columnist for The 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:38.800 Philadelphia Inquiry. Philadelphia is as sports crazed as any city 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.560 in the country, and as a columnist, I have the 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:43.839 freedom to weigh in on the Eagles in the fall, 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:46.920 the Sixers and Flyers in the winter, and the Phillies 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:51.400 in the summer. It's the job I always wanted. My 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:53.640 favorite part of it, though, is being able to tell 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:57.600 a story, especially a human one, A story that's not 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:01.000 really about sports, A story that has a new and 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:03.760 unique angle on a person or a topic that has 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:07.080 already been covered a lot. A person, for instance, like 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:12.040 Kobe Bryant. I covered Kobe sporadically throughout his twenty year 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:15.000 career in the NBA, usually when the Lakers were in town. 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.200 I was there in Philadelphia to cover the two thousand 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.120 one NBA Finals when the Lakers faced the Sixers. During 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.560 one press conference, Kobe told Sixers fans that he planned 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.800 to cut their hearts out, and then he did. The 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.840 Lakers won the series, Kobe's second championship in five games, 0:13:32.840 --> 0:13:35.960 celebrating on the Sixers home court. I was there in 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.040 the Lakers locker room in March two thousand seven. Things 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.720 between Kobe and the team were rocky there, and he 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.480 was still trying to cleanse himself of the stain of 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.960 the sexual assault charges and scandal in Colorado a few 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.360 years earlier. The Lakers lost to the Sixers that night 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.880 in Philly, and I asked Kobe after that game if 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.160 he had given any thought to finishing his career with 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:02.160 his hometown team. He told me, it would be nice 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:05.120 to play here. In high school, It's all I thought about. 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.160 And I was there in December for Kobe's final NBA 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:14.320 game in Philadelphia. During a press conference before that game, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:21.280 he recalled his fondness for playing in his hometown before 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:23.760 coming to this arena, there are some of the behind 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.680 the scenes things that maybe people that you've known since 0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:29.480 you grew up here do for you, or or some 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:32.000 of the fun things that happened to open man. Every 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.040 time I come here, there's there's fresh press sit at 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.920 the top of while you played with a lot of 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.440 great I knew Jeremy treatment too. I met him in 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.400 when I was in college, just starting my writing career, 0:14:45.800 --> 0:14:48.720 not long after Kobe had finished high school, just after 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:53.040 one journey had ended and just before another began. Jeremy 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.560 had tried to co author Kobe's memoir in the late 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.920 nineteen nineties, and when that didn't work out, he approached 0:14:58.960 --> 0:15:01.800 me in two thousand mine about collaborating on a book. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.840 It would focus exclusively on Kobe's senior year in high school. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:09.160 Jeremy was crushed that he couldn't find the tapes of 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.400 the interviews he conducted with Kobe all those years before, 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:15.720 but he did have transcripts of several of them. He 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.400 had remained in close contact with many members of Lower 0:15:18.440 --> 0:15:26.240 Marian's state championship team, including Greg Downer, Kobe's coach. Of course, 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:29.560 I had to ask, would Kobe help us? Not much, 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:32.480 Jeremy told me, but we knew he returned to the 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.880 Philadelphia area at least once a year and often visited 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:38.560 Lower Merian when he was in town. Maybe we could 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:40.280 catch him for a couple of minutes at his old 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.960 high school or in the locker room after a game. 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:46.880 It would be enough. We could do this. Actually, no, 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:50.480 we couldn't, at least not. In two thousand nine, I 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.920 was offered and I accepted a new job in New York, 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.280 and I had to relocate Jeremy and I scuttled the project. 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:02.280 Kobe's death, though, gave his life a new, more intense residence. 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.760 Writing about him as a columnist, I could go and 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:09.600 had gone, only so deep. There was so much more there. 0:16:10.240 --> 0:16:13.680 It seems certain anecdotes about him had been repeated incessantly 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.960 over time, as if those memories alone explained it. But 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.280 what about the forces and circumstances and people who had 0:16:21.320 --> 0:16:24.160 shaped him before he was even born. What kind of 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:27.400 effected growing up when he did, where he did have 0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.640 on him, What people influenced him when he was younger, 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:34.600 and how did he in turn influence them. There was 0:16:34.640 --> 0:16:36.880 so much of the man we still didn't know or 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:41.800 had forgotten, especially from those all important formative years before 0:16:41.920 --> 0:16:45.560 he was the Black Mamba. Here's Kobe speaking to Charlie 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.880 Rose in a two thousand, one sixty minutes interview about 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:53.000 how growing up in Italy influenced him. I learned Italianan 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.720 started for his great over here in the Italian school. 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.120 I was six with seven eight. What influence you think 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:04.040 could had on you? I think it made me more mature. 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:05.879 You know, we had to grow up a lot faster. 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.760 I think it uh, it brought us closer together as 0:17:08.760 --> 0:17:11.360 a family, because that's moving out there into a whole 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:13.760 another world. We didn't speak the language, we didn't know anybody. 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:16.600 We had to buy them with one another. More so 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.280 than anything, Kobe entered the NBA when he was just 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.520 seventeen years old, which made it seem as if he'd 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:26.680 sprouted fully formed from a hill in Hollywood. People got 0:17:26.720 --> 0:17:31.840 to see his triumphs the Lakers have one back in 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:38.880 the A Championship and their six game overall, and they 0:17:38.880 --> 0:17:42.040 got to follow his controversies in the case. The whole 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.840 country is watching new details and new questions about the 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.320 accuser or of NBA star Kobe Bryant, and they saw 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:52.040 him become a lightning rod and for many people. He 0:17:52.119 --> 0:17:54.960 remained one for the rest of his life. When Jack 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.119 sits up there and says that Kobe didn't want to 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.720 give him the ball during the final series that they 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:03.120 lost the five games in Detroit, pistons, I'll be dead 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.600 if he's lying. But I knew there was also a 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:08.840 compelling story about his life before the Lakers. It was 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.400 a story worth telling with as much honesty and accuracy 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.600 as possible. You can send Kobe's passion for basketball in 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:19.919 this clip from NBC ten Philadelphia, when he was just 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:22.320 a kid with aspirations to make it to the NBA. 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:27.560 But the superhero tonight was Kobe the Junior simply refused 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.399 to lose as he took over the game in funch time, 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.359 pouring in eighteen fourth quarter points, pouring the aces ahead 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.680 every time lower Marian needed a bucket number thirty three? 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.880 What deliver? So I started researching and writing my own 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.399 book about Kobe, and I found that there were people 0:18:45.400 --> 0:18:48.159 who were eager to help me. Jeremy Treatment was one 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:50.960 of those people. He gave me the transcripts of his 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.760 interviews with Kobe. They were terrific, really insightful, and I 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:59.119 was trucking along with my manuscript. As Christmas approached, my 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:04.919 book deadline less than two months away. Then Jeremy called 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.080 me on December. He was about to move from his 0:19:08.160 --> 0:19:11.000 townhouse in Philadelphia, which he had owned for years, to 0:19:11.040 --> 0:19:14.560 poke a raton Florida. He'd been cleaning out his garage 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:20.720 and loading up his car for the trick. I'm an 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.399 extremely hard worker. Think that's done very well for myself. 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.359 But one of the things that I've never moved on 0:19:27.480 --> 0:19:32.720 is procrastinating. More procrastinators Mike Selski has found out. So 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:35.760 when I decided to move, and I just kept looking 0:19:35.760 --> 0:19:37.880 at my garage, looking at my garage, I said, somebody's 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:39.960 gotta get somebody's gotta do this. Who can I hire? 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:42.360 Who can I get the diva? Like you know, there's 0:19:42.400 --> 0:19:43.960 only one person who can do this and go through 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:48.280 seventy boxes in my garage, and that's Jeremy Treeman. I'm 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:49.760 the only one who knows what to throw out, what 0:19:49.840 --> 0:19:52.120 to do. So I had to make myself do it 0:19:52.320 --> 0:19:55.840 because I was out. I had a band coming to 0:19:55.880 --> 0:19:59.040 move the stuff, and so I went down to my 0:19:59.040 --> 0:20:01.840 crawl space. I said, I'm gonna look for these Kope 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:03.639 tapes one more time. They're in that crawl space. I 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:05.000 know I put him there because thats where I put 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:08.240 my old tapes, all my games, my videos, all my 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.560 articles are athlone, all these magazines I wrote for in 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.160 the nineties and early two thousands. And I found all 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.200 that stuff except the tapes. And I went down there again. 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:18.359 I risked smashing my head down there and could barely 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.600 There's barely a light on, and I couldn't find it. 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:23.720 I was frustrated, and then I, you know, I was. 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:25.920 I was going through these boxes boxes. I was about 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:27.560 a day a day and a half away from leaving, 0:20:28.520 --> 0:20:31.000 and I found a bunch of copy stuff, including the 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.680 sign cards and the Magic Johnson. I knew where those were. 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:36.920 The Magic Johnson signed covered those. I knew where they were. 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:40.960 I always had those a protective um. And then I 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:42.920 was just moving things and I go, oh my god, 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:48.400 micro cassettes, microssettes, shelf to back back wall, this is it. 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:50.439 And I looked at once, said Kobe on it. Then 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:52.760 I was like, no, it can't be. I was like yes, yes, 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:56.199 And I was like we called we called Pam. Now 0:20:56.240 --> 0:20:58.040 I can't call it him. Alright, let me call Mike Selski. 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:20.040 I'm still surprised I didn't drop the phone. Early the 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.640 next morning, I drove forty five minutes from my home 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:26.280 to Jeremy's. Both of us massed against COVID. He reached 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:29.159 into a cardboard box on a shelf and removed a 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:32.840 plastic zip bag of micro cassettes, twenty of them at all, 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.200 and the device he had used to record. The recorder 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:38.560 didn't have batteries. It didn't even have a panel for 0:21:38.600 --> 0:21:41.919 the opening where you insert the batteries. Some of the 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.160 cassettes had Kobe written on them in long faded ink, 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.959 one said Joe. Not all of them were interviews with Kobe, 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.119 but enough of them were, and on these cassettes in 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:55.240 the recordings I eventually spent hundreds of hours listening to, 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.199 there were glimpses of the athlete and the man that 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.320 Kobe became. Yeah, they realized that when the nightly basis, 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:05.760 God come out and kill you, So you got to 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:10.119 prepare yourself. Yeah, I think that. I know. I'm going 0:22:10.160 --> 0:22:12.600 to prepare myself if a god comes out and kill me, 0:22:12.600 --> 0:22:17.240 I'm not gonna sit back and kill everything. I can't stop. 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:19.760 And if you, even if he does like me up 0:22:19.800 --> 0:22:21.120 and have to look at the video team and see 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:25.000 what did he do that That beat me every time. 0:22:25.480 --> 0:22:29.639 That's how I'm playing every move on. When he touched 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:36.480 his nose, when he touches there, you know everything Kobe 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:42.240 said that to Jeremy treatment It's difficult to comprehend how 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:45.760 long ago that was. Bill Clinton had just been re 0:22:45.880 --> 0:22:48.720 elected president, but the news of the Monica Lewinsky scandal 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.879 hadn't broken yet. The terrorist attacks of September eleventh, two 0:22:53.359 --> 0:22:57.680 one were four years away. Email was still a new, 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:02.760 exotic technology that most people did news, and Jeremy Treaton 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:05.480 was tight with the kid who would become the best 0:23:05.520 --> 0:23:09.840 basketball player in the world. This podcast tells the story 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.360 of a friend of Kobe Bryant's who had a front 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:15.240 row seat for a wild ride few others have witnessed. 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:19.320 A guy who was Kobe's closest confidante, who knew things 0:23:19.359 --> 0:23:21.960 about Kobe and saw sides of him that no one 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:24.479 else got to see. A guy who will help you 0:23:24.520 --> 0:23:27.960 see the great Kobe Bryant in an entirely new way. 0:23:29.520 --> 0:23:32.640 This series also tells the story of how Kobe Bryant 0:23:32.640 --> 0:23:36.600 prepared himself to become a unique athlete and a larger 0:23:36.640 --> 0:23:39.679 than life figure. You'll meet the Kobe who only so 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:42.760 many people knew, The Kobe who was a teenager in 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:46.680 nineties America. The Kobe who was unsure of himself when 0:23:46.680 --> 0:23:50.120 he started high school, who changed a high school basketball 0:23:50.119 --> 0:23:54.119 program and an entire community. The Kobe who dared to 0:23:54.200 --> 0:23:57.320 believe he could become an NBA player without going to 0:23:57.440 --> 0:24:00.560 college at a time when believing such a thing was 0:24:00.600 --> 0:24:04.359 considered crazy. The Kobe who would go on to alter 0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:08.760 professional sports for everyone who followed him, and who transcended 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:11.520 what it meant to be a professional athlete on the 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:15.919 world stage. I want to tell you the story of 0:24:15.960 --> 0:24:30.320 the Young Mamba. I Am Kobe is a production of 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:34.399 The Version podcasts in association with I Heart Radio. This 0:24:34.480 --> 0:24:38.040 season is written and hosted by me Mike Sealsky, gets 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:42.200 produced by Jacob Bronstein and directed by Mark Francis. Story 0:24:42.359 --> 0:24:47.320 editing by Jacob Bronstein, with editorial direction from Scott Waxman, Editing, 0:24:47.440 --> 0:24:51.199 mixing and sound design by Mark Francis. Stephen Tompkins is 0:24:51.200 --> 0:24:55.360 our production assistant. Our theme music is Create Yourself by 0:24:55.400 --> 0:25:00.119 Grover Brown featuring Justin Starling. Find Create Yourself where ever 0:25:00.200 --> 0:25:04.960 you stream Music. Music supervisor is Scott Velaska's for Free 0:25:04.960 --> 0:25:09.360 Sons Sinking executive producers are Mark Francis and Scott Waxman. 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:13.560 Join the conversation about I Am Kobe on social media 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:18.439 on Twitter and Instagram. It's at Diversion Pods thanks to 0:25:18.560 --> 0:25:23.879